Improving Inclusivity of Non-Apparent Disabilities

Barriers to Employment

Although the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for people covered by the act, hesitancy remains among some employers when it comes to recruiting individuals experiencing disability. Cost of accommodation, belief that a disability may prevent an employee from being productive, fears around absenteeism, and prejudiced attitudes all serve as barriers to creating a more inclusive workplace.

The good news, according to Patrick Reinhart, executive director of the Governor’s Council on Disabilities and Special Education, is that these barriers are beginning to erode, thanks to a younger generation of employers.

“We have a generation of people who have grown up with people with disabilities in mainstream education. [They] had kids with disabilities in their classrooms, and that changed attitudes,” he says.

Samantha Vetter, program coordinator for the Alaska Department of Health, adds that people with disabilities tend to stay longer with their employers than those without disabilities, yet they are often the first let go when a business struggles, due to the view that they are less productive or more costly.

“This can be especially true for employees who have non-apparent disabilities and chronic conditions,” she adds. “They may be viewed as less involved or more unmotivated simply because they do not work in a very traditional method and may become rejected for lack of ‘fitting in.’”

Yet businesses benefit from retaining employees, including those with disabilities, given that employee turnover is one of the largest costs a business can experience.

The idea that employing an individual with a disability is costly or burdensome, adds Reinhart, is simply inaccurate.

“Research from the Job Accommodation Network has shown that most accommodations cost less than $600,” he shares. “And there’s even more that’s free. [Employers] just don’t think about all the ways you can accommodate people these days, including working from home.”

The COVID-19 Shift

Remote work has become more common for all kinds of employees, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hybrid schedules, virtual meetings, and new digital tools changed the landscape of work almost overnight—and many employees with disabilities saw immediate benefits.

“With remote working opportunities that seem to be part of this new world, it should be a much bigger opportunity for people with disabilities to find jobs than it has been in the past,” Reinhart points out.

The COVID-19 era introduced many people to the ways technology could make work easier, from task management apps and automated captioning to improved ergonomic equipment that makes working from home more comfortable. These are the same assistive technologies that can be incorporated into remote or office work to support individuals with both apparent and non-apparent disabilities.

Many of these technologies offer free versions, but even the tools that come with a price tag are relatively inexpensive, Reinhart says.

It’s a small price to pay to fill in a significant gap left in Alaska’s post-pandemic workforce. “The job market has really changed in the last few years, and we’re having a hard time filling a lot of jobs in this state,” Reinhart says. “Employers do seem to be more open to considering people they may not have previously thought were capable of doing some jobs.”

Crafting Inclusive Work Cultures

The employees are out there. So how do employers go about crafting a work environment that recruits, retains, and supports workers with non-apparent disabilities?

It starts, says Biastock, with a culture shift. By creating a workplace where differences are accepted and asking for support is commonplace, employers—and HR departments, in particular—can make accommodating employees’ needs something that is “baked into the culture.”

“It becomes something that’s not foreign or different,” Biastock describes. “If you want to be inclusive, you need to create an environment where someone wouldn’t be worried about negative consequences of disclosing a challenge.”

One way to work toward creating such an environment is through consistent messaging. Sharing information about health plans, employee assistance programs, resources, supportive services, and general education through company tools like newsletters and social media can be a way to normalize talking about workplace challenges.

Employers have a wealth of resources available to educate themselves and their staff, adds AMHTA Senior Program Office Eric Boyer. Organizations such as the Alaska Association on Developmental Disabilities provide support for both employees and employers, while UAA’s Center for Human Development offers educational courses and coaching for both individuals and workplaces on how to customize jobs for employees with disabilities.

Inclusive messaging can start during recruitment. When crafting job descriptions and recruitment materials, employers should focus on essential functions rather than specific abilities. For example, rather than describing a position as requiring employees to carry a certain amount of weight, descriptions can use words like “move” or “transport” weight to make the description friendlier to people with a variety of abilities.

Representation Matters

Boyer points out that culture often shifts when leaders or staff have lived experience and can model openness. “When you’re around people who share their story and feel empowered, it changes the culture of that business,” he says. He notes that some Alaska employers—particularly behavioral health organizations—have openly embraced lived experience as a strength.

“They have people in their leadership who have struggled with brain-based disabilities, whether it’s severe mental illness or a brain injury that’s impacted their ability to function, but they’re still able to do jobs, give back, support other people—and they’re really vocal about their stories,” Boyer describes.

As more people with disabilities, both apparent and non-apparent, become part of the workforce and move into leadership positions, greater visibility can help diversify recruitment.

Service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses are a great example, adds Vetter. “These businesses are typically more suited to accommodate and… often allow more flexibility with managing needs” of employees with disabilities, she says.

Making Space for Everyone

Whether a culture of inclusion is created through leadership examples, HR messaging, or both, the point is to make all employees comfortable expressing their needs. When staff do so, HR or management should be ready to address those needs appropriately.

Reasonable accommodations don’t have to be difficult, says Reinhart, especially with resources like the Job Accommodation Network. The organization’s website has a searchable “Situations and Solutions Finder” where employers can discover ideas for how to appropriately address an individual’s needs based on their disability. A casual look at the site’s featured solutions provides examples such as using generative AI tools to help an employee with ADHD better manage multiple work projects; letting an employee with a communication disorder use a synthetic voice product; and providing an employee suffering from chronic pain associated with endometriosis with the option of working from home and using ergonomic seating for increased comfort.

Additional support for making on-the-job accommodations is hopefully on the horizon. One recommendation of the Alaska Work Matters Task Force’s 2022 report is for the state to establish a “centralized accommodations fund” that employers could tap into for more costly equipment or upgrades to support employees in their work. Such a fund could aid workers in their existing careers and likely increase recruitment of individuals with disabilities, Reinhart says.

“If somebody comes into an interview and you think they may need an expensive accommodation, then it immediately affects your thinking about, okay, that comes out of my budget,” he describes. “But if there’s a central fund to pay for something like that, you’re not focusing on the accommodation; you’re focusing on that person’s strengths and suitability for the job.”

Investing in Inclusivity

“Attitude shifts in the incoming work generation show there is preference to stay with employers that do better prioritizing the desires and needs of their employees,” says Vetter. “This includes employers that are more supportive in general of mental health, flexibility, and neurodiversity.”

Alaska provides a variety of options for employers who wish to invest in learning more about the needs of workers with non-apparent disabilities. The Alaska Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and the Alaska Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation Programs both work directly with job seekers and employers to connect talent with opportunities, including training, onsite support, job coaching, and accommodations guidance. AMHTA also offers job coaching and training for employers and employees.

Employers can also partner with organizations that provide job preparation or job coaching to individuals with disabilities. Individual placement and support programs help people with mental health or substance use conditions maintain employment. Individual placement and support participation in Alaska nearly doubled from 80 individuals to 154 between 2024 and 2025.

Project SEARCH is an effort targeted at young adults with cognitive disabilities that partners with hospitals and other employers to provide intensive internships leading to high-paying, benefited jobs. Though the program within the Alaska Department of Health is small, it has achieved a 70 percent employment rate among its participants.

Return to Work

Another factor in underemployment is short- or long-term disability due to injury or illness, either on or off the job. In these circumstances, it’s crucial to find a way to return to work as soon as a person is able; the consequences of not doing so are detrimental to both the employer and the employee.

“It’s all a matter of timing,” Reinhart says. “If you don’t get back to work quickly after an illness or an injury, you may never get back to work.”

Employers can encourage returning to work by providing timely and effective support to absent employees and by ensuring their HR managers are well schooled on the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, employee assistance programs, and stay-at-work/return-to-work programs. Employers should be prepared to offer flexibility to those employees whose injury or illness may prevent them from returning to their specific positions, adds Reinhart.

“We experience this all the time,” he says. “If the supervisor figures out a way to get [an injured employee] back on the job—maybe it’s not the same job they were doing, but something new they can do—that’s better for the employer, and the employee’s health and well-being becomes better.”

Work can be one of the things that gives life meaning. By taking steps to make workplaces more inclusive, employers can provide that for all employees, regardless of ability.